


Brink's Tooka

by VirgilVirgilVirgil



Series: Gravity [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Dathomir, Family, Zabrak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-21 19:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12463905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirgilVirgilVirgil/pseuds/VirgilVirgilVirgil
Summary: Running off a vague clue that he may be Dathomirian, Brink searches for answers about his father.All original characters. It's entirely unnecessary to read any other stories in the series to understand this story. If you want more background on any of the OC's mentioned, just let me know and I'll point you to the right stories!





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains profanity & references to sex, for anyone sensitive to that.

It wasn’t difficult to spot his greeter – she stood taller than almost everyone else in the crowd, and had white-blonde hair. She smiled widely and held her hand out to him.

“You must be Brink? I’m Rooney.”

He shook her hand, “It’s good to meet you. I think I got lucky meeting your uncle a few weeks ago, it’s nice to have someone here who can show me around.”

“Yeah, no problem. So you’re going the medical route?” She grabbed one of his bags from him before he could stop her and started off, he assumed for his quarters.

“Um… yeah.”

“Doctor?”

“Field medic, actually.”

She paused a little mid-step, glancing to him. “Really? I figured you’d be taking the doctor route. Isn’t that what your father does?”

“It is. I spent some time shadowing him at his work and found it…well, honestly it was really boring. It was a lot of talking with patients and reading over charts. I need something a little more fast-paced.”

“Well, you’re certainly going to like being in the field then.”

“You’re a pilot?”

She grinned at him, “Yeah. Same problem you had, I guess. Needed something fast-paced.”

“So… Do you like it here so far?”

“Yeah! I mean, I’ve only been here for one quarter, but it’s pretty good. They’ll push you pretty hard, but you’ll learn a lot. And the people here are mostly great, which makes it a lot more bearable.”

“Bearable.” He laughed at her. “That doesn’t inspire much faith.”

“If you’re the sort of person who likes to be kept busy, you’ll do just fine…” She paused, looking at the block living quarters they’d reached. “What was your room number?”

He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and showed it to her. She looked at it for a moment, then scratched her nose. “Er… I’m sorry, I took you in the totally wrong direction. You’re in a block on the opposite side of campus…” She grinned at him sheepishly.

He laughed at her, wondering how she could be a decent pilot with a poor sense of direction. “No problem. Are you sure you know where it is?”

“Yeah, yeah, follow me.” She headed off in the opposite direction. “I mean… at least we get to talk more?”

“So when did you start flying?”

“My uncle taught me when I was young, I started learning basic controls around 8 or 9.”

“I assume you mean the blonde one?”

“Yes. Technically speaking, Sev isn’t my uncle. They’ve never really made their...  _thing_  official.” She laughed. “They’re so strange, they’re clearly going to spend the rest of their lives together, but I guess neither of them really wanted that.”

“Did you grow up with Sev as well?”

“Oh yeah, they both took me in when my father passed, raised me together.”

He assumed something had happened to her parents since she wasn't being raised by them, but didn’t really want to press further. “It’s funny, you don’t seem much like Sev…”

She laughed loudly. “Oh. Well, nobody’s like Sev, right? He’s… interesting, that’s for sure.”

“He threw coasters at my sister and one of our guests.”

She snorted and covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laugh. “Oh… I shouldn’t laugh at that… I’m sorry…”

“Nah, it was actually pretty funny.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“There are five of us.”

“Five? Wow, I can’t even imagine that.”

“It’s a full house, but it was fun growing up. You don’t have any siblings?”

“No. Unless you count Sev.” She paused. “Actually, you really should count Sev.”

“It did seem like Cohren had his hands full with him…”

“It’s the nature of their relationship. Sev does most of it intentionally, because he thinks it’s funny. Cohren thinks it’s funny as well, so he puts up with it.”

“I get the sense Cohren is a saint.”

“Oh… you have no idea.”

They walked for awhile, chatting casually about their families and the academy and what he could expect in his first semester. Eventually she stopped and motioned to a door, identical among the dozens of doors flanking it.

“Well, this one is yours.”

He imput the code to enter and tossed his luggage in. It was a small living space, with four bunks. None of his roommates were present yet, so he assumed he got first pick of the beds.

“Thanks for walking me over here. And for the advice. I’m sure I’ll need it.” He took his other bag from her.

She smiled back at him. “Yeah. No problem. My quarters are in the next building over, room 275. If you ever need anything, just let me know. You have my contact info.”

“Right.” He wondered why he’d ever need her room number.

“Oh, and you’re going to want to get involved with a few extracurricular activities right away. The good clubs tend to fill up fast.”

“Good to know. I’ll be sure to do that.”

She hesitated. “Is there anything else? Do you have any questions about anything?”

“Nah, I have an orientation coming up soon. I should probably get settled in before that starts.”

“Right. Right. Well, good luck then. Like I said if you need anything…”

“Yep. I’ll let you know. Thanks again!”

She turned to leave and he turned his attention to his two bags of belongings on the bed. He didn’t bring much, it wouldn’t take long to get situated…

_Smack._

His attention turned back to the door – she’d stuck her hand through it stopping it just before it closed.

The censors picked up on the blockage and it glided back open. She smiled at him. “You know, I just realized you don’t know where the mess hall is. Why don’t I swing back by here later tonight and I’ll show you for dinner?”

“Er… yeah. Sure. I’d appreciate that.” Did she think he wouldn’t meet anyone else who could show him?

“Great. I’ll see you later then.”

He shook his head as she finally left. Maybe she was a little like Sev. She was certainly a bit strange.

 

**

 

Brink tried his best to keep focused on his professor.  _Clinical and Diagnostic Reasoning_  was a required course for his field, and he could certainly see why, but purely hypothetical work left him feeling brain dead after awhile. The only good thing about the class was the professor – Dr. Phya Mercer. She was what could at best be described as the standout among all his professors. She was a very short woman in her 40’s with pinkish hair that was always a little unruly… it certainly wasn’t within regulation, but clearly she carried a great amount of respect among her peers to be able to get away with it. Or she just didn’t care. She came across as a little flighty, maybe she’d just never noticed the disapproval.

The things she said weren't necessarily interesting. To the contrary, he found the content of the class exceedingly boring. It was the way she moved, sort of bouncing around the front of the room like a little ball of energy, waving her hands and looking entirely too excited about deductive reasoning.

She clapped her hands together, drawing his attention back to her words. “So, it appears we’ve made it to the end of our first week together. Congratulations to you all. We’re going to end this week with your first assignment!” She slapped a stack of folders that sat on her desk. “I have a series of puzzles for you all. Everyone’s folder is unique, so don’t bother going to your classmates for the answers. Each folder contains three different medical profiles, to varying degrees of completion. Your job is to use the information you have to tell me as much as you can about the individual. Age, gender, species, occupation, home world, chronic diseases, past injuries… anything you can deduce utilizing any resource that’s available to you. This is due in three weeks. That should be plenty of time for you to do some through research and reasoning while handling the other coursework I’ll have for you.”

She walked around the room handing them out to everyone. “Are there any questions?”

One student raised his hand, “How exactly do you expect us to gather information like  _profession_  from medical files?”

She gave the student a somewhat vicious looking toothy grin. “If you can’t figure that out on your own you may as well switch your career path now, Cadet.”

 

 

 

**\---- TRANSMISSION FROM STUDENT 47993250 PHASMA, ROONEY ----**

 

> COHREN: Hey, how’s everything going?
> 
> ROONEY: Great! Classes are going really well. The physics requirement is killing me, but I think I can handle it…
> 
> COHREN: Did you get a chance to meet up with Baz’s kid? Brink?
> 
> SEV: {enters transmission} Heeey! Rooney!
> 
> ROONEY: Hey Sev! So Brink… Yeah. That. Yeah, we met up.
> 
> COHREN: Seems like a nice guy, I’m glad you two could connect.
> 
> ROONEY: Yeah, about that… There’s something I don’t understand. You two are both attracted to men, right?
> 
> SEV: Is that really difficult to understand?
> 
> ROONEY: No, but what I don’t get is how you both failed to mention he’s  _completely gorgeous…_
> 
> SEV: {laughing} I told you she’d get along with him, Cohren.
> 
> COHREN: {laughing} He’s not a bad looking kid.
> 
> SEV: Have you made a move?
> 
> COHREN: I don’t want to hear about this.
> 
> ROONEY: I did… I made a few actually, but he seems a little oblivious to the whole thing.
> 
> COHREN: He’s probably really overwhelmed getting used to his life there, I doubt he has much time to think about…
> 
> SEV: You need to be more direct.
> 
> ROONEY: Well I gave him my room number…
> 
> COHREN: {groan} I don’t want to hear about this.
> 
> SEV: I’ve heard that with Zabraks the area around their horns is super sensitive… you should try touching him.
> 
> ROONEY: Would that be a little too bold, though? I mean, would that be like shoving my hand down his pants right after we met?
> 
> SEV: Too bold? No such thing. I was going to suggest shoving your hand down his pants as a second option.
> 
> COHREN: {leaves}
> 
> ROONEY: {laughing} He really can’t handle us, can he?
> 
> SEV: Nope.

 

 

 

**\---- TRANSMISSION FROM STUDENT 47993414 SEBAI, BRINK ----**

 

> SEBBIE: Hey! So how have the first few weeks been?
> 
> BRINK: Good. Keeping busy with course work, but it’s good.
> 
> BAZ: You’re settled into your living quarters?
> 
> BRINK: Yep. Three roommates crammed into there and it still feels less chaotic than living with Kiva.
> 
> SEBBIE: {laughing} I imagine so. Not completely inundated with coursework yet?
> 
> BRINK: Not yet, but I doubt that will last long. I have a pretty intensive assignment for my Diagnostic Reasoning class, but nothing I don’t think I can handle.
> 
> SEBBIE: Aaah, Diagnostic Reasoning… I remember those days.
> 
> BRINK:  {laughing} What are you talking about? That’s almost all you do now.
> 
> SEBBIE: Yeah, but I don’t have to sit in a class and have someone lecture me about it for hours on end.
> 
> BAZ: Oh hey, did you get a chance to meet up with Cohren’s niece?
> 
> BRINK: Rooney? Yeah, she seems nice. It was really nice to have someone who knew their way around campus when I first got here. How is Arlo doing? Is she over hiding in her room?
> 
> BAZ: She was pretty effected by Pan leaving… But she spent about three hours chatting with him last night. She’s been in a slightly better mood.
> 
> SEBBIE: Kiva misses you. He won’t tell you that, but he misses you.
> 
> BRINK: Are they around? Can I talk to them?
> 
> SEBBIE: Yeah, sure.  Let me go grab them…

 

 

Brink ended the transmission after talking with his siblings and turned to his desk.  The folder stared back at him. He sighed and opened it. He really didn’t have anything else to do, so he might as well keep working on the project. He’d finished the first two profiles to a point he felt satisfied with – one was a male Zabrak he’d only been given blood work results from, the other was notes from an appointment with another Zabrak male.

He was willing to guess this third piece was also a Zabrak male. Clearly Mercer wasn’t getting creative, for whatever reason.

Interestingly, the only information he was provided on the third subject was the results from a DNA test. After a few hours of pouring through various DNA records, his suspicions were confirmed: Male, Zabrak.

He could even pin down the home world with some reasonable accuracy by checking the record against a database specific to Zabrak genetics. He was expecting a hit on Iridonia since the species population was most heavily concentrated on that planet, but he was surprised when the results came back: Dathomir.

It was DNA from a Dathomirian.


	2. Chapter 2

Mercer clapped her hands together, something he now realized she did at the end of every class. “Turn in your projects as you’re heading out today!”

As people filed out of the classroom, her desk accumulated a stack of folders. Brink deliberately hung around the back of the room. When the room finally cleared, he went to the front and set his folder on her desk.

“Do you have a minute? I had a quick question about one of the subjects assigned to me.”

She slid back into her seat more casually than someone of her influence should have. “Sure, I have time as long as you have decent questions. If it’s a bad question I’ll just tell you to leave.”

“Do you have full profiles for all the subjects?”

“That’s a bad question. How could I possibly grade these if I didn’t have a measurable way to determine your accuracy?”

“Of course, that makes sense. What I mean is, do you have names for all them?”

“Mm… That information would be confidential.”

Of course it would be, he wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of that. “I completely understand the confidentiality with medical records, I don't want to interfere with that. But is there any way to at least get access to the full profile myself, even if you censor the name?”

She looked at him for a moment. “Which patient are you curious about?”

He pulled the DNA test from the folder. “This one, the DNA sample from the Dathomirian Zabrak.”

“Ah, well it already sounds like you did pretty good research if you were able to deduce what planet he’s from.” She plucked the record from his hands. “I’ll look into it and see if there’s anything I can give you. I can’t make you any promises. I have additional information on all these individuals, but I don’t have what you’re probably thinking of as a “complete profile”. I pull the information from a variety of sources, so even my information is limited.”

He nodded. "I understand. Thank you for looking into it."

 

**

 

He ran into Rooney again as he was leaving training at the campus dojo. He was happily surprised to learn they had one on campus – Baz and Sebbie forced him into self defense classes when he was a kid, and over the years it’d turned into a hobby. Unfortunately there were no rock or ice climbing extracurriculars, so he’d have to just rely on the dojo for his physical activity.

The great thing about it was that there was such a wide variety of people involved in the dojo on campus that he got to see a lot of fighting styles he’d never encountered before. Practice had quickly become the highlight of his week.

“I didn’t know you were a fighter.” She glanced back to the dojo.

He laughed. “I’m not, really. Only in hypothetical situations, so to speak.”

“I see…” She looked at the building for a moment, then smirked at him. “All that practice for nothing?”

“It’s good training for your mind, more than anything. You should give it a try sometime.”

“You think? I might take you up on that.”

“Yeah, just let me know when you want to come. I’m sure everyone would be happy to have you.”

She walked by his side as he made his way toward his quarters. “It sounds like you’re adjusting well.”

“Yeah. It’s nice to be somewhere with a little more… variety than my home planet has.”

“Well, we are supposed to be a reflection of this area of the galaxy. Hey, I had a question for you. We have a week long break at the end of the quarter. Some friends and I are planning a little trip to this really nice beach planet not far from here. Do you want to join us?”

It was tempting. Very tempting. “That sounds really, really great but… I think I might crush my family if I didn’t go home to see them.”

She shrugged. “Well, the offer stands if you’d like to join us. Just let me know.”

 

**

 

Brink waited for everyone to leave the classroom before approaching Mercer again. She looked confused.

“Were you able to find any more information on the patient I was asking about?”

“Oh!” She scrambled around her messy desk, digging into a drawer. “I looked into it, and yes, there was a little bit more information on file. Not much, unfortunately.” She handed the information off to him. “It looks like we don’t know much more than what you were able to find. Male, Dathomirian, blue eyes, early 20’s at the time the sample was taken…”

“Do you know when the sample was taken?”

She looked at him for a moment. “No, unfortunately this is one of the more obscure patients. I remember another student analyzing this one 6 years ago, so it’s at least that old.”

“No name?”

“No name.”

“It couldn't be mine, could it?” He wouldn’t put it past her to pull some sort of trick like that. Of course the age wouldn't fit, but there was just enough room for error in determining age that it could be the case.

She shook her head slowly. “No. Why would you think it’s yours?”

It really didn’t feel like something he should discuss with a superior.

She sighed, tossing the information back into the drawer of her desk. “Sebai, what exactly is this about? I’ve never had a student be so persistent about getting more information on a subject before. What could possibly make you think this is yours?”

“It’s a long story, I doubt you have time…”

She walked around him to the door and closed it. “I have time. Talk.” She slid back into her seat, looking up at him with a very sincere expression.

“I’m sure most of this is in my personnel file. My father -- my biological father -- passed away when I was pretty young. I remember him, but I don’t really know much about him, or about where we came from. I recently met this family friend who said he recognized the markings on my face – that they were specific to Dathomirian Zabraks. I don’t know if that’s really the case but it would just… it would be nice to know.”

She nodded slowly. “Well, I should start by saying I’m very sorry to hear you lost your father. What was his name?”

“Thank you. His name was Nash.”

She looked at him for a moment, rubbing fingers over her mouth. She tapped the information laying on the desk. “You suspect this might be your father’s DNA?”

He inhaled deeply, looking around the room. “I know it’s a long shot, but we were in this area of space when he passed. I thought maybe… I don’t know, it really does seem crazy… do you know anything about Dathomirians?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

“It’s almost impossible to find information on them. I guess their population was relatively small, and they were all wiped out years ago. So if there weren’t very many of them and there just so happens to be a DNA sample sitting in this part of space… I don’t know, it doesn’t seem entirely improbable.”

“I would say highly unlikely, but not improbable.” She gave a small smile. “Look, I might not have much information on this individual, but I think there’s another way I can help you out a little bit. Our lab is pretty backed up at the moment, but I can run a sample of your DNA against this one. You’ll have to forgive the lead time on this, but it’s going to take me at least six weeks to get to it and process the results. I’ve been telling them we need a bigger lab for ages, but they still won’t listen to me…”

“You can do that? Really?”

She smiled. “Yes, of course.” She shuffled off to the back room to get a testing kit. “I’m happy to help, I think this will bring you some peace of mind no matter what the results are.”

When she returned, she did a quick swab of his mouth, dropped the sample into a vial, and sealed it off.

“Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.”

“Like I said, I’m sorry about the lead time… I should have the results around the start of next quarter. Sound good?”

“Understood. Thank you, again.”

She laughed at him. “Don’t worry about it. Now, turn your attention back to your studies, because you’re one of my best students so far and I don’t want to see you get distracted with this.”

 

**

 

“Brink?” He nearly jumped when Rooney said his name. He’d hulled up in a quiet corner of the library and was looking over a copy he’d made of the mystery Dathomirian DNA test. He understood that Mercer didn't have to help him and really appreciated the fact that she was going out of her way to do so, but the wait still seemed unbearable.

“Hm? Oh. Hey.”

She frowned a little, looking at him seriously. “Is something wrong? You look like you’re about to glare a hole into your datapad.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” He put a smile on. “Thank you for asking though.”

She glanced to the datapad, and moved slowly into the seat across from him. “You sure about that?”

“I just… I have some stuff… happening.”

“What stuff?”

How could he even begin to explain this to someone? He sounded crazy enough trying to explain it to Mercer. To someone on the outside it would sound like utter nonsense.

But then… was she really totally on the outside? She’d lost her father too. Maybe it wouldn’t sound quite so unbelievable to her.

“I was given the results of this DNA test in one of my classes, right? The assignment was to identify as much information as possible given the little information you had about the subject. So I started investigating and found that it was a male Zabrak, from Dathomir. It struck me as odd, because I suspect my father may have been from Dathomir. I can’t imagine how a sample of Dathomirain DNA would have made it all the way into the hands of the government in this area…”

“Unless it was your father’s?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly it. I know it sounds so completely crazy but…”

“Does it?” She quirked her head and took the datapad from him. “I don’t think that sounds entirely crazy. Given the circumstances, I think it actually sounds pretty logical.”

“I… Thank you.” That was something of a relief to hear.

She clicked around on the datapad. “Where is it? Dathomir? I’ve never heard of it.” She pulled up a galactic map on the datapad and searched for Dathomir. A small planet zoomed into focus. “You think this is where you’re from?”

“No, I think it’s where he _was_ from. My memories are a little fuzzy from when I was young, but I don’t recall ever being on a planet other than the one they found me on when he passed.”

She frowned at him for a moment. “They don’t have records of who the sample belongs to?”

“No, there’s not much information on file.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How do they not have a complete profile for someone they have DNA on?”

“Well… if I can be honest, the professor is a little flighty so it really wouldn’t surprise me if she were just keeping back records.” He laughed. It honestly was the first thing that came to mind when she said she didn’t have a full record. “Aside from that, she said she gathers these from multiple sources, so it could be anything… it could be from a very old record handed off from another government, it could have been something she picked up from another academic for study purposes, it could have been from a criminal investigation…”

“I would hope your father’s DNA isn’t mingled up in a criminal investigation.”

He paused a little, because he realized the miscommunication. He _was_ hoping it was part of a criminal investigation. An investigation to find whoever had killed his father. He shook his head. “The point is, there’s a multitude of sources it could have come from.” But most likely Mercer was just bad at keeping organized. Her desk was certainly evidence of that.

Rooney frowned and turned her attention back to the map. “Do you think there’s a possibility you’re from Dathomir and you just don’t remember?”

He glanced to the map. “I suppose it’s possible.”

“Do you want to go?”

“What?” He looked at her, confused.

“You know that trip I told you about at the end of the quarter? We could skip it and I could take you to Dathomir. Traveling there and back would take up most of our time, but we’d still have a day to look around and see if anything seems familiar to you.”

He looked at her for a moment, a little bewildered by the kindness from both she and Mercer in regard to the matter. “Um… Thank you. I appreciate that, a lot. I would have to think about it…”

She smiled and shrugged. “I’d be happy to do it. Sounds like a fun adventure, yeah? Let me know what you decide soon, so I have time to line up a ship if we need it.”

He nodded. “I’ll let you know.”

 

 

**\---- TRANSMISSION FROM STUDENT 47993414 SEBAI, BRINK ----**

 

> BRINK: Hey! How are you guys?
> 
> EVERYONE: {incoherent answers}
> 
> BRINK: That good? {laughing} I really should only talk to a few of you at a time.
> 
> TRIXIE: We miss you!
> 
> KIVA: Just a little. A lot.
> 
> BRINK: I miss you guys too. I have some kind of bad news… I know I have a little break at the end of the quarter, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it home.
> 
> ARLO: {gasps}
> 
> KIVA: That’s terrible news.
> 
> BRINK: I have some friends here, they’re going on a trip together…
> 
> BAZ: What are you talking about? That’s not bad news, that’s great news. You’re making friends.
> 
> TRIXIE: You have friends? What, are they better than us?
> 
> BRINK: {silence}
> 
> TRIXIE: Damn it they’re better than us…
> 
> SEBBIE: I think it’s fantastic. Go have fun with your friends. But next break we get you back for a little bit. I can only share so much.
> 
> TRIXIE: Ugh, I’m jealous… can I go with you guys?
> 
> BRINK: {laughing} I’ll be home next break for sure.


	3. Chapter 3

Brink couldn’t bring himself to tell his family where he was actually going. They were always so supportive. Arlo even knew her biological mother and younger brother, she’d met with them a few times before. This wasn’t any different than that, in any logical sense.

But the more he thought about it, the more it did seem different. This was him giving up time with his family – something he would have very little of while he completed his schooling – to chase after some small clue about who his father was. It was completely different because it wasn’t about living, breathing people. It was about someone who was long gone, who would never return. And it was about a place. A place he wasn’t even sure he was actually connected to in any way.

He wasn’t sure where Rooney got the ship to take them to Dathomir, but if one thing became exceedingly clear to him, it was that she was a very, very good friend. The ship was there when planned, just big enough that they each had a private room to sleep in, and she was eerily receptive to his somewhat sudden mood change. The longer the journey to Dathomir dragged on, the more introspective he became. He tried to keep himself out of it, to talk with her and make jokes, but he ended up spending a good deal of their last cycle on the ship hiding in his room, trying to wrap his mind around what he was doing.

As they approached the planet he returned to the cockpit. It was a red planet, swirled with grayish clouds, foreboding even as a little dot in space. Rooney didn’t say much as she navigated them to a suitable landing spot. For the most part, the planet appeared void of any sign of life other than plants. But as they skimmed over the surface looking for anything, they finally came across a tall, stone structure clearly built by some sort of sentient creature. The façade had a carving of some sort of humanoid creature, held up by pillars shaped like female figures.

Rooney landed just outside the structure.

“Would you prefer if I stayed on the ship?” It was the first thing she said to him in hours.

She was killing him a little with the sensitivity. He supposed in her own way she could relate to what this meant for him. He smiled a little. “No, no. You flew us all the way here, it would be a pity if you didn’t get the chance to explore a little.”

She followed him off the ship and into the structure, which could best be described as ruins. Many of the pillars were heavily weathered or collapsed, covered in the vegetation that seemed to rule the planet now. Rooney kept her distance, always keeping within sight of him but moving at her own pace, and giving him a little privacy.

As they wandered deeper into the structure, he noticed a few other signs of life: Insects, and a few reptilian creatures. None of the critters made an effort to hide themselves as he and Rooney passed by, they just watched indifferently. It occurred to him after awhile that they didn’t have any reason to fear he and Rooney. They weren’t used to being hunted.

They wandered for some time, until they entered a large, open room with what appeared to be a stone chest of sorts sitting in the center, the lid skewed open. He paused, and realized he was very tired of the silence.

“What do you suppose is in there?”

“Mm… I don’t know…” She wandered closer to it. “It looks almost like…” She peered in and jumped back. “Yep. It’s a casket.”

He tried to stifle a laugh at her reaction. She made for the doorway. “I’m just going to be out here, is that okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a few.”

He walked around the room, studying the designs on the walls and wondering what they meant. He should have spent more time with his grandfather, learning to interpret these things. The casket in the center of the room did, in fact, have remains of some humanoid in it. It didn’t bother him as much as it scared her – upon closer inspection, it appeared to have the remains of more than one individual. There were multiple skulls.

When he rejoined her, she was looking up to a window, located high off the ground. She pointed to it, “It looks like there used to be a way to get up there.”

She was right – the remains of a wooden ladder barely clung to the base, the lower portion having rotted and fallen away after years of neglect. He looked at it for a moment, and realized there were cracks in the wall below. Just enough that he might be able to scale it.

He found a stone block and pushed it to a position under the window, then stood atop it and slowly, carefully, started to scale the wall. I’d been ages since he’d gone rock climbing – Nivo was so cold that he’d almost exclusively taken to ice climbing.

“Um… Is that safe?”

He grunted, trying to keep focused on locking his fingers into whatever narrow crevices he could find. “Yep.” It was doable, he was certain of it when he looked at the wall. With the stone block, it was maybe a little over twice his height to the window.

“How are you doing that?”

“Don’t talk.”

“Ah. Got it.”

He only slipped up and had to restart once (his short fall drew a sharp yelp from her that made him laugh). Once he had the crevices memorized it was relatively easy – he made it to the small balcony jutting out from the window and nearly collapsed, trying to catch his breath.

“What does it look like?” She asked from below.

“Come up here and see.”

“Uh… yeah, sorry I’m no good a scaling walls with my bare hands. You do realize that’s an unusual skill, right?”

He laughed. “Get into the backpack I left down there. I brought a rope.”

“You brought a rope?”

“Yeah. I always bring ropes. They’re handy.”

“… Right.” She dug into the pack and pulled it out. “You brought a rope and you didn’t use it to help you scale that wall?”

“I didn’t need to.”

"Show off." She tossed one end up to him, and climbed most of the way. He helped her toward the top, pulling her up onto the ledge.

It was, he had to admit, quite the view. The terrain was so flat, you could see for miles in any direction. The only thing obscuring the view a little was a slight reddish haze in the far distance.

She sat on the ledge, letting her feet hang over the side and looking out over the view. “It’s sort of beautiful in its own way, don’t you think?”

“It is.” He decided to not add his own weight to the ledge – he really didn’t trust the structural integrity of the building. If the ledge started to crumble he wanted to be on stable enough ground he could help her.

“Does anything feel familiar?”

He gazed out over the spiny trees, vaguely wondering about the oddly shaped fruit hanging off them. “No. I wish it did, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never been here.” In the distance, obscured by the red-orange haze, he could just barely make out a dark splotch on the skyline. He pointed to it. “Can you see that?”

She squinted. “Barely. What do you think it is?”

“I think it might be another structure.”

“Hm…” She was quiet for a moment, then stood. “Let’s go check it out. Shouldn’t take us long to get there in the ship.”

“Sure.”

She paused, glancing over the ledge. “You’re going to help me get down, right?”

 

**

 

They reached the black splotch quickly. He was right – it was another dwelling, or more like a series of dwellings, a small village. It wasn’t nearly as magnificent as their first stop, which he suspected might have been some sort of palace or temple; clearly it was intended for revered people.

The village was small, unimpressive, unpretentious. There were a good deal of dwellings, very makeshift in construction with wooden roofs, most of which were collapsed. A central path cut between the dwellings, leading to a circular area in the center of the village. He stood in the center and looked over the buildings, then headed into one that wasn’t completely collapsed. It was a small dwelling, as they all were, with two stories. The lower portion had a long table inside, crowded with weapons of all sorts, sickles, clubs and swords. One wall was lined with variously shaped staff weapons, pikes and scythes.

“It looks like some sort of armoury, don’t you think?”

“That’s probably a good guess…” He wandered back outside and made his way up the steps to the upper portion. He had to force the door open, it was stuck from years of neglect.

The upper half was clearly living space for someone. It was sparse, with a broken table and two chairs, and a mat on the floor that must have once been a bed. There were even makeshift blinds falling off the window that faced the road, and a metal dish he assumed was for food.

He tried to imagine living like this – he tried to imagine his father living like this. It actually didn’t seem that bad, other than the obvious lack of plumbing. He’d always lived simply, and so had his father. It wasn’t difficult to live without of things he didn't need; things like furniture and decorations had always been a bit confusing to him anyway. The more he thought about it, the more it actually made sense that his father might have come from this sort of place. It would explain why they’d lived such a minimal lifestyle, spending most of their time outdoors, exploring and climbing and doing things rather than needing things.

But maybe he was just trying to force a match, because there was one glaring piece of the puzzle that was missing. He remembered his father as an avid reader. He _always_ had books with him. He recalled so many occasions when he and his father went out to climb some rock structure, and when they reached the top his father would bury himself in a book for hours. There were no bookshelves anywhere here, no evidence of any sort of reading material. If he had to guess, he would say most of the people here were illiterate. His father definitely wasn’t.

He wished he could remember what his father used to read.

With a sigh of resignation, he made his way out from the home. Rooney followed him out to the small raised deck area before the stairs. She stood next to him quietly for a few moments.

“Still not getting anything?”

He shook his head. “No. It feels like it should feel familiar, if that makes any sense at all. I think my mind is just starting to make things up, trying to make things fit where they don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been here.”

She didn’t really respond, remaining silent for awhile. “Do you mind if I ask you a really personal question? Don’t feel obligated to answer, I’m just curious.”

“You’ve flown me half way across the galaxy to get here, I think the least I could do is answer a personal question.” He smiled at her.

“What are you going to do if the DNA belongs to your father?”

He was quiet for a long moment. He’d been asking himself that same question for weeks. “I need to know where the sample was from, why they have it.”

She nodded slowly. “Do you have any idea why they might have it?”

He inhaled deeply. “My father’s death was… messy. He was killed by someone, and I have no idea why. As far as I know, the case was never looked into very thoroughly. The authorities wouldn’t have had any reason to, he wasn’t anyone significant. We lived pretty far from civilization, I barely remember interacting with anyone else as a child. They likely did a little digging and couldn’t find anything and the case was forgotten. I suspect… if the presiding government in the area has a sample of his DNA, then I suspect there may be more to the case. Maybe it’s been reopened, maybe there were others whose lives ended at the hands of whoever killed my father. It would just be nice to… to finally know.”

“I’m really sorry, I had no idea…”

He shook his head. “Don't be. These things happen. I've dealt with it."

She hesitated. “Can I give you a piece of advice? As someone who’s been through something very similar?”

“That would actually be really appreciated.”

“Sometimes the answers you’re looking for aren’t the answers you want.” She paused. “That’s a difficult thing to cope with, trust me. And sometimes… sometimes there are just no logical answers whatsoever. Sometimes really bad things happen to really good people and there’s no clear cut reason for it.” She looked away from him quickly – he could see she was trying to hide tears. “I suppose that’s terrible advice. It’s not even really advice. It’s just… it’s just the way things are, and it really, really sucks but I think it’s kind of nice to know you’re not alone in it.”

He watched her try to hide her face for a few moments, then drew her into a tight hug. “Hey… thank you. For bringing me here and for being a really, really good friend.”

She sniffed a little, still trying to keep her face hidden. “Sorry. I'm being an emotional nutcase...”

“No, you aren't. Trust me, I understand.”

He let her sniffle for a little bit, looking around at the barren little village, at the somewhat gloomy reddish haze that hung over everything.

“I don’t suppose there are any fun beaches on this planet.” He said offhandedly.

She snorted a laugh into his shoulder. “No, I don’t think so.”


	4. Chapter 4

They made it back to the academy with just enough time for a full night’s sleep before the next round of classes started up. In some act of cosmic mercy, his first class with Mercer was on the very first day back. As he walked into the room she nodded to him.

“See me after class, Sebai.”

It was a strangely foreboding comment, and left him distracted through her entire lecture. _See me after class._ Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Clearly it meant she had some information for him. Or maybe she’d lost the sample somewhere in her volcanic eruption of a desk. He wouldn’t have put it past her.

The class drug on for what felt like eons, until her traditional clap drew his attention back to the present. She slapped a stack of folders on her desk. “I have all your mystery subject projects graded, be sure to stop up front and pick them up before you leave today. I’m sure each of you noticed, all your subjects had something in common. Every single one of you was given three subjects of the same gender and species as yourself. So… Deductive reasoning: why would I have done that?”

The class remained silent.

She sighed dramatically. “Lively group today, I see. Okay, I’ll just tell you all why. Because after 20-some years of experience in this field, I can tell you one thing with certainty: It is of the utmost importance that you understand your own biology better than anyone else’s. Especially for those of you who intend on working in the field,” she looked directly at Brink, “Things happen. You might not always be directly involved in combat, but I guarantee you at some point you will find yourself in a situation where you need medical care and at the same time you need to give others medical care. Always keep this in mind: You are no good to anyone if you’re injured. Your number one priority needs to be to keep yourself in the best shape possible, because you can’t help anyone if you’re too injured or sick to do anything. So that’s the big moral here, Cadets. Be a little bit of a narcissist. Put yourself first so that you can be useful to as many people as possible.” She nodded.  “You’re all dismissed.”

The other cadets filed out slowly, until it was just the two of them. He made his way to her desk, but she grabbed the remaining folder before he could reach it. She pulled a chair over, motioning for him to sit. “Let’s talk.”

“Were you able to find anything?”

“Well, yes. In a way.” She closed the door so they had some privacy, and slid into her chair. “I actually had enough time to do a little research as well, I read through your personnel file, so I think I have a slightly better understanding of why this is so important to you. Additionally, I did some research on Dathomirians, though I can’t say it was very fruitful.  You’re right, there’s not much information on them.”

“Really? I appreciate you putting so much time into this, I’m sure you’re busy.”

“I am. But this seemed important and when I started reading through your file I realized it is important, to you at least. I can see where this would become a major distraction to you if you weren’t given the most comprehensive answer I could provide. Like I said when we first discussed this, you’re one of my top students and I want you focused.” She flipped the folder open and pulled out what he recognized as the original test results, then a second set of results – his.

“I’m afraid I’m not really familiar with these tests…”

“I didn’t expect you would be, that’s why I wanted to talk.  So I can translate this for you.” She paused, frowning a little. “I have definite answers, but I’m afraid they might not be the answers you’re looking for. This person is _not_ your father. There’s not enough commonalities between the results, I'm sure that much is obvious to you when you look at them with an untrained eye. In fact there’s not many commonalities between your DNA and Dathomirian DNA. I can say with reasonable certainty that’s not where your father was from.” She looked down at the results, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I understand that’s not the answer you were looking for. I wish I had a better one for you.”

He looked at the tests for a moment, then shook his head.  “You’re certain? There couldn’t have been an error in the testing or something?”

She watched him, inhaling deeply and sighing. “Look… Brink…” It was very strange to hear her use his first name. “I read through your file, I understand why this is so important to you. At least, I understand as much as someone who has led a relatively lucky life. Losing your biological father can’t have been easy, especially at such a young age. But from what I gather, you have two very supportive parents and several siblings… I know you’re just looking for answers, but you aren’t going to find any here. Focus on what you do have, because you’re lucky to have at least that much.”

“I… yeah, yes. I completely understand that. I am very lucky to have the family I do. I think I just… I don’t know.” He sat straight in the chair, drawing back from the results. “I wasn’t looking for any answer in particular. It’s nice to know definitively. Like I said, I really, really appreciate your time.”

She smiled at him. “It wasn’t a problem at all. I’m happy we could have this conversation. You’re going to be okay, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

She closed the folder and handed it to him. “Good. Like I said, keep focused on the good things you do have, because from the sounds of it what you do have is very good. And keep focused on your classes.” She frowned a little. “Actually, mostly keep focused on your classes now.”

He laughed and took the folder from her. “I will. Thank you, again.”

 

**

 

He meant to return to his quarters now that his classes were done for the day, but he realized he was standing in the wrong complex, in front of room 275. It took him a moment to remember – that was Rooney’s quarters. He stood for a moment, wondering why he’d come here with the folder still in hand, then buzzed the intercom.

A female’s voice came through: _“Hello! Who is this?”_

“It’s Brink Sebai, is Rooney in?”

There was no answer, but he thought he heard a thump in the room. The door slid open and two girls he didn’t recognize came out, awkward smiles plastered on their faces.

“Oh… hey… we were just on our way out…” One said.

The other shook his hand, “It’s good to meet you, yeah we were just leaving…”

Rooney leaned out the door, “I’ll see you two later, did you say you’d be back in an hour?”

“Er… yeah. We’ll be back in an hour.”

Rooney smiled at him. “Hey. It’s good to see you, come in. You got the results?”

“Yeah…” he moved inside and sank into a seat. “There was no match.”

“No match? So it wasn’t him?” She paused. “Who was it then?”

He shrugged. “Just some Dathomirian…”

“Well… that doesn’t even make sense, it didn’t seem like that planet had a huge population. You must be related to the subject somehow.”

“As it turns out, I’m not even Dathomirian.”

She paused, taking a seat on a bed he assumed was hers because there were several posters of ships plastered to the walls around it. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t really know what to say, he could barely make sense of it himself.

“Strange…”

“Is it? I mean… it was a long shot to begin with, kind of a crazy idea. I mean the chances that my father was from some obscure population on the other side of the galaxy and living all the way out here… and that then his DNA ended up in the hands of the government and coincidentally ended up being handed to me as part of an assignment… that would be strange. That would be very strange.”

“You’re upset?”

“No. I mean… I suppose I just feel a little foolish for going across the galaxy looking for answers that don’t exist. It’s like you said, sometimes the answers just don’t exist.”

She frowned, looking slightly taken aback. “No, you’re sort of misconstruing what I said. I did say that sometimes answers don’t exist, but I never implied that meant you shouldn’t look for them. You should always look for answers. Even if it means going to the other side of the galaxy trying to find them.”

It was a very sweet sentiment. She continued to prove herself a very good friend. He smiled a little. “I suppose so. I guess I’m just sorry I drug you there with me. In retrospect, I feel like the whole thing was completely crazy.”

“Crazy?” She looked at him for a moment with an expression he couldn’t quite place. She shook her head. “No. No, that’s not crazy. That’s not crazy at all.” She leaned over and dug around in a storage compartment under her bed, and pulled something out. She tossed it to him.

It was a very ratty, worn looking stuffed tooka toy. He looked at her.

She shrugged, looking away from him like she had on Dathomir. “My father gave me that shortly before he passed. I still sleep with it every night. Why do you think I had to get a ship big enough for us to each have private rooms rather than just bunks? I didn’t want you to see me with it.”

He looked down at the well worn toy in his hands. _That_ was why they had such a large ship? He tried – but completely failed – to stifle a laugh.

“Don’t laugh! Do you get it? You’re not acting crazy, at least not to me. You miss him, and you wish you knew more about him. There’s nothing wrong with that.” She sounded morbidly embarrassed. “Give him back to me!” She tried to grab it from his hands.

He handed it back to her, not really able to keep himself from laughing more. “I’m sorry… I’m not laughing at you.”

“Shut up.” She was nearly in tears, clutching it like she wanted to hide behind it.

“I swear, I’m just laughing at the situation, not at you…” He looked at her for a moment, and realized he had a question he really, really wanted to ask her. “Rooney?”

“What?” She wasn’t keeping her temper under control very well.

“Can I take you out next weekend? Like on a date?”

The tips of her ears turned bright red, and her mouth hung open for a moment. “Are you _completely_ clueless? I just flew you half way across the galaxy on a whim and I showed you Nyu and you really think you have to _ask_ for a date??? At the very least you owe me a really, really good date.”

He laughed. “Nyu? Is that its name?”

“Yes and don’t you dare laugh at it, it’s a cute name and I picket it when I was four.”

He finally put a lid on his laughter. “It is cute. I think I like you a whole lot.”

Somehow she flushed even deeper red. “Get out. Out of my room. Now.”

He stood and made for the doorway. “I hear the senior pilots are doing practice for an air show this weekend, do you want to watch with me?”

“That sounds completely fantastic.” She opened the door for him. “I’ll see you then please get out.”

He stopped in the middle of the doorway, so she couldn’t close it on him. He couldn’t stop smiling. “Rooney. Thank you. For everything. Really.”

She finally, finally made eye contact with him again, still blushing furiously. “Yes… well, you can thank me by taking me on a fantastic date this weekend. I’ll see you then.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I really seriously wasn’t expecting you two to hit it off so well when I gave you her contact information.” Cohren said to him with an earnest look. He and Sev had made it to the area for a brief visitation. Considering he and Rooney had been together now for several months, it only seemed natural that Brink would join them on their outing.

“HA. I totally knew they would get together.” Sev smirked at him.

Cohren just laughed at him. “How could you possibly know something like that?”

“You don’t know your niece. She’s into the slightly clueless nice guy types.”

Brink decided to take it as a compliment. At least it meant he was a nice guy. “Well, I’m happy you put us in touch, regardless of motive.”

“Sev!” Rooney was at the counter of the restaurant, trying to place an order for them. “Come up here and tell me what you want. You’re picky, I can’t choose for you.”

“I’m not picky.”

She turned back to the waitress, “He’ll have a steak sandwich.”

“Waaait…” He went up to join her.

Cohren watched after his partner, laughing and shaking his head. He turned his attention to Brink, smiling. “I suppose I’m supposed to seize this opportunity to speak with you privately.”

“Is this the part where you tell me to be good to her?”

“Her father had one request of me when he asked me to take care of her. He told me to be vaguely menacing and threaten any boy she brought home.” He laughed. “That’s not really my style, unfortunately. And honestly, you seem like a really good guy. So… yeah. Just treat her well.”

“Of course. I don’t think you need to worry about it.”

“Now…” his eyes drifted back to the two at the counter, “Just to give you a heads up, I have a feeling Sev will take over threatening duties. I imagine you can expect that sometime today.”

“I’ll keep my guard up, then.” He laughed.

“Just… don’t take anything he says too seriously. Ever. Really, that’s just generally good advice for being around Sev.”

As the end of the day drew closer, Brink almost thought it wasn’t going to happen. But when Cohren and Rooney disappeared into his ship so he could show her a new navigation computer he was testing out, he knew it was coming.

Sev made an odd motion toward him. “Listen…” He paused, and looked like he didn’t know what to say next. “Look, you’re not the first guy she’s been interested in.”

“I assumed that much.” He tried not to laugh.

He chewed on his lip, “You’re different than the other ones. And not just because you have horns. And a face tattoo.”

He wondered if Sev was even remotely aware of how strange he sounded when he talked.

“Look… just… don’t fuck this up, okay?” He peered at him over the rim of the odd little sunglasses he wore.

He nodded. “I don’t plan to.”

“You don’t get it. She’s amazing. Cohren and I somehow stumbled through raising her. We never wanted a kid, we had no fucking clue what we were doing, and she still turned out amazing. _Don’t_ screw this up.”

He was a little flattered that there was nothing really threatening in Sev’s message. “Yeah. I won’t.”

“And don’t make her sad. Ever. Really. She’s had enough of that.” He jabbed Brink’s shoulder. “Don’t screw it up.”

In Sev’s own weird way, it was really an endearing talk. “Trust me, I will do everything I can to avoid that.”

“Good.”

He nodded to the ship, “Cohren told me you were going to threaten me. I’m a little underwhelmed.”

“Yeah. Well. Rooney asked me to be nice to you.”

He laughed. He’d have to thank her for that later.

Sev waved toward him, “I like to think the threat communicated without being spoken of.” He peered back over his glasses. “Got it?”

“Understood.” He paused for a moment, then decided to ask something that had been on his mind for awhile. “When we first met, you said you’d run into a man with similar markings to mine when you were young. Do you remember much about him? A name?”

He sniffed, frowning a little. “I thought about that quite a bit after we spoke. My memories around that time are… fuzzy, to say the least. I talked to my buddy that was with me to see if he remembered any better than I did.” He shook his head. “We never got a name. He was around our age, maybe a little older. It would have been around the planet Durune, about 20 years ago. Do you think there’s a possibility it was your dad?”

He frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t know much about his life before I was born. You’re sure the guy you met was from Dathomir?”

“Yeah, both my buddy and I remember talking to him about it. He was the one who told me what I know about the planet.”

“Hm… well…”

“I’m sorry, man. I wish I’d gotten more details from him.”

“No, no. I had one of the professors here run a DNA test on me recently. As it turns out, I’m not even Dathomirian.”

Sev frowned for a moment. “Really?”

“I don’t quite know what to think about it.”

Sev looked at him over the rim of his sunglasses for a little too long. “That’s strange…”

He shrugged. “I’m at as much of a loss as anyone. I wish I would have gotten some information from my father before he passed.”

“Hm. Well…” He clapped Brink’s shoulder. “Don’t think too much of it. You’re not where you come from. Granted I’m probably biased, I came from a metal cell in an experimental medical facility.”

“Sev! You ready to go?” Cohren stood in the doorway of the ship.

Rooney hopped off the ship and joined them, hugging Sev tightly. “Be good, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll miss you, kid. Don’t be a stranger. Call us.”

“I will. Don’t give Cohren too much trouble.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

She laughed. “I know.”

She stood next to him as their ship took off, waving.

“I don’t know what you were worried for. I thought that went really well. They’re both really nice.” He said.

“It did go well. I was a little worried about Sev, but he kept himself under control.” She turned to him, crossing her arms. “I suppose it’s my turn to meet your family next?”

“Oh…” He hadn’t really thought about that. He rubbed his forehead. “I guess it is.”

“We have a break coming up soon.”

“We do. But it’s only in three weeks.”

“Do they need more time than that to prepare?”

“Oh, no. No, I’m worried that’s not enough time for you to prepare…”

 

**

 

His four siblings sat across the table from them, each taking a wildly different approach to Rooney’s presence. He’d warned her of this.

Arlo looked a little spacey, not that it was really an unusual look for her.

“How’s Pan doing?” Brink asked.

“Huh? Oh… he’s good.”

“Pan is her boyfriend.” Trixie explained, sounding bored.

Arlo yipped. “What? No. No he’s not.”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “You spent three hours talking with him last night. He’s your boyfriend.”

“No. We’re just friends. He’s… Um…” She mumbled something, looking flushed, and left the table.

One down, three to go.

Laza, surprisingly, had managed to make it home just to meet Rooney. She watched after Arlo. “I’m not sure why she’s so embarrassed about it, it’s pretty clear she and that boy like each other. Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to meet him yet.” She turned to Rooney. “But I’m really happy I could make it home to meet you! I’ve heard a lot about you, Brink talks about you all the time. Or, at least when he does talk he talks about you.”

Rooney laughed, “Yeah, I’m happy I could make it out to meet you all as well.”

“How long have you two been together now?” Trixie asked.

She looked at him for confirmation. “What has it been? Seven months now?”

Trixie straightened up, sipping on a mug of tea. “You waited seven months to bring her home to meet us Brink? What, was it not serious enough?”

Kiva poked her shoulder, “No, he probably didn’t want you to scare her away. You’re being rude, Trixie.” He turned to Rooney with an apologetic look. “Don’t mind her, she does this to anyone we bring home. That’s why I’ve never brought a date into the house.”

She took another sip, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. “No, you’ve never brought any of your conquests home because you know none of them have been up to par.”

He smiled at her for a moment before saying through gritted teeth: “Stop it.”

“Trixie, you’re being unreasonably rude…” Laza started.

Brink cut her off before she got into a full speech, “The reason we haven’t made it back here yet is because we’re both really busy with classes. It’s been difficult to get all our schedules to align.”

“Hm.” There was no answer that would have been good enough for her.

“Come on, stop with the hazing ritual Trixie.” Kiva poked her again and turned back to Rooney. “You’re a fighter pilot, right? What’s your favorite ship?”

“Mm. Well, Headhunters are a blast to fly, as far as what currently gets used in the area. But I’m a sucker for the old Defenders, they have a really raw feel to them. Really fun to fly.” She turned her attention to Trixie, and Brink realized there was about to be a war at the table. Trixie had a more... passive-aggressive method of gathering information on people. Rooney was very direct. “Is that what this is? A test? I suppose you probably have questions for me, I don’t like to dance around these sort of things. Why don’t you just ask?”

Trixie frowned a little, then set her mug down. “Okay. Why do you think you’re good enough for my brother?”

“Because I absolutely adore every piece of him and there’s nobody else in the universe I trust to treat him as well as he deserves.”

“Aww…” Laza poked Trixie, “That’s so sweet, don’t you think?”

“Why do you like him so much?” Trixie was relentlessly focused on her target.

Rooney didn’t respond right away, running her finger over the corner of the table while she thought. “Brink is like this… parallel to me that I never really knew existed. I was perfectly happy and content with my life before him, I felt very fulfilled. But somehow he came into the picture and it felt like I’d found a missing piece that I never knew I wanted or even had room for. He’s been my support when I’ve needed it, and he’s been there to push me when I’ve needed that. There’s this energy about him… he might be a more introspective person, but he has this amazing energy, this love of life and adventure and all the messy things that might come with it, it’s really just… infectious, in a way.”

If he weren’t sitting at a table with three of his siblings and his parents in the next room, he would have kissed her. He didn’t feel like most of it was all that accurate, but the sentiment was really, really flattering. He’d never really bothered to ask her why she was with him.

Across the table, the three were silent.

“Brink,” Kiva leaned toward him, tapping the table. “I think this girl likes you.”

“That was really, really sweet.” Laza looked like she was about to cry. She poked Trixie, “If that’s not good enough for you nothing will be.”

Trixie’s mouth twitched a little, but she didn’t make much of a response. She was quiet for a long moment, studying Rooney. “What’s your least favorite thing about him?”

Rooney frowned, thinking. “Sometimes he drools when he sleeps, it’s not entirely attractive.”

Trixie cracked a smile and tried to hide her laugh. She kicked him under the table, “Ew, Brink. Take care of that before she leaves you. Gross.”

“Does that mean I passed?” Rooney asked, with a heavy amount of sarcasm.

Still laughing, Trixie nodded. “Yeah. For now.”

“Congratulations Rooney, you’re the first to ever pass Trixie’s first round.” Kiva said.

“I’m not that mean.”

“Yes you are.” Laza said.

“No I’m not…”

While the argued among each other, Rooney glanced to him and winked. “Did I win?”

He wanted so badly to kiss her. “Yeah. You didn’t need to, but you did.”


	6. Chapter 6

When he returned to his quarters after his last class for the day, Rooney was already there. He’d gotten lucky with his roommates this quarter – all three their classes ran late, giving he and Rooney a little bit of alone time before they had to move elsewhere.

“How’s it going? You’ve been busy lately.” He went to take off his uniform. She’d been understandably busy lately – she was due to graduate at the end of the semester. He changed into something more comfortable and went to her side. She was looking at something on a datapad, but flipped it off quickly when he joined her.

“What were you looking at?”

She wouldn’t look at him, for some odd reason. “Nothing. Nothing.”

He frowned a little. “Ah… Did you get your assignment?”

She sort of mumbled something but didn’t really respond.

“Well? What is it? Where are they stationing you?”

“The Colomar base.”

“What? What are you upset about?! That’s the best base you could ask for as a pilot, it was your #1 pick! And it’s not far from here either.”

“I know. I know. It’s just… Look, it’s not far from here, from you, _now._ But… I don’t know, Brink. We don’t know where you'll be stationed when you graduate, it’s probably going to be way further away, we really don’t have any way of knowing and…” She shook her head, looking away from him. “I don’t know, I’m just don’t feel like I’m ready for this.”

He had a feeling this was coming soon. He’d been counting on it. “You know, there’s something really funny about you.” He sat next to her on the bed and pulled her close, kissing her. “I’ve never known you to be anything other than direct when you have a problem. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

“Brink… I don’t want to do this now.”

“Just hear me out.” He laughed a little and kissed her again. “There’s a pretty easy way we could solve that problem and not have to ever worry about being separated again.”

She looked at him for a moment, still on the verge of tears. “Are you saying we should…”

“It would make me really, really happy if you would say yes.”

She hesitated for a moment. “Yes. Yes yes yes.” She took his face between her hands and kissed him. “Yes!”

"I don't think we'll really have time for anything extravagant..."

She tackled him back onto the bed. "When have I ever wanted extravagant? Let's just do this. This weekend? Do you think we could get it done this weekend? Technically it's just some paperwork, right?"

"It might be nice if we gave our families a little more notice than that..."

"Next weekend?"

He laughed at her. "Sure. Next weekend."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had several couples in my stories get married, but I've never given you guys a proposal scene, so I thought this would be a nice way to close out this leg of Brink's story!
> 
> Pan's story, Brink's story, and Milo's upcoming story are all setup for the next really big story! Hypothetically, you guys can expect the first chapter of Milo's story on Monday, but I'm struggling with the story structure a little so it might take longer to get out :( If anyone's open to beta reading the story, I would looooove the help!
> 
> Fun fact: Pan will be back in Milo's story! Wooo more Nagai!
> 
> Once more, a huuuuge THANK YOU to everyone who read!


End file.
